John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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In search of Robert Millar by Richard Moore
Put me back on my bike - In search of Tom Simpson by William Fotheringham
Tomorrow we ride by Jean Bobet
Tyler Hamilton - The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs
Not just the best cycling book but the best book!
Tim Moore - Gironimo!: Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy
The Race Against Time - Edward Pickering
Sean Kelly - Hunger
Michael Hutchinson - The Hour
The wind in my wheels - Josie Dew
I can't believe no-one has listed Fred and the Magic Bicycle by Tom Bogdanowicz - http://amzn.to/1Ccf5Fi - don't vote for this comment as I work here at road.cc so it wont count.
Road to Valour: Gino Bartali: Tour de France Legend and Italy's Secret World War Two Hero
by Aili McConnon), Andres McConnon
Michael Hutchinson
Faster: The Obsession, Science and Luck Behind the World's Fastest Cyclists
Bad Blood Jeremy Whittle
Merckx: Half Man Half Bike. Will Fotheringham.
Maglia Rosa by Herbie Sykes is excellent.
We were young and carefree - Laurent Fignon
Domestique - Charly Wegelius
A Rough Ride - Paul Kimmage
A Corinthian Endeavour, the story of the national hillclimb championship - Paul Jones
In Pursuit of Stardom by Tony Hewson
http://tinyurl.com/p2cggsu
Eat Sleep Cycle - Anna Hughes
The Bicycle Wheel, Jobst Brandt
Superb technical
book on wheel building, plus engineering analysis of wheels.
Richard Moore - Slaying the Badger
Roads Were Not Built For Cars, Carlton Reid
Richard Ballantine - City Cycling
www.amazon.co.uk/City-Cycling-Richard-Ballantine/dp/1905005601
The Breakaway : Nicole Cooke
Jeff Connor - 'Wide eyed and Legless'
Anne Mustoe - 'A Bike Ride: 12,000 miles Around The World'
Tim Krabbe - The Rider